Keanu Reeves’ documentary “Side by Side” was previewed at Berlinale 2012 (the Berlin Film Festival) to excellent reviews. The film explores the evolution of technology in movie making, including camera work, editing, post-production, and distribution. The documentary, which had the potential to be dry as dust, actually provides an interesting and thought provoking picture of film making from 1985 to the present.

The independent film industry has been the happy beneficiary of some of these new technologies. One of the huge expenses in movie making is processing the film. Whereas a photochemical film processing can cost thousands of dollars, shooting the same amount of useable movie time digitally is considerably cheaper.

Digital filming also reduces the cost of editing and post production, as well as the margin for error as the results of the camerawork are immediately available. With cast and crew still in place, there is no need for a reshoots which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars on a large production. All that is needed is another take, which represents considerable savings.

Independent film production companies such as Goldrush Entertainment Inc, who are responsible securing financing, are direct beneficiaries of this new technology. Eric Gozlan has many years of experience in financing and working with venture capital. As the CEO of Goldrush Entertainment he knows what a boon this cost saving is to his movie budget.

While makers of high cost studio films such as Christopher Nolan and Joel Schumacher can make the choice to stick with photochemical film processing, lower budget films such as Goldrush Entertainment’s “Beautiful Boy” (made for $1.5 million) rely on the financial boost that working in the digital domain can provide.

Producers and production companies are divided with pro-digital on one side, and anti-digital on the other. However more and more independent film producers like Eric Gozlan are on the pro side because it makes dollars and sense. However, the anti side will have to cross the digital divide soon enough when the last of the traditional feature film cameras dies. Manufacturers have ceased fabrication of the cameras and predict that the existing ones have only about 10 years of life left in them.

The important element to keep in mind is that movies tell stories and as long as Producers continue to do that it doesn’t matter what format they choose.

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